High Altitude

​Led by Dr. Brent Michael Kious, scientists from the University of Utah have come to the conclusion that people living at higher altitudes may have an increased risk of suicide. The researchers do have a theory as to why this might be the case, along with some recommendations.

For many adventurers, scaling Mount Everest is an endurance test like no other. For the Sherpas, it’s all in a day’s work. After all, they routinely set the record for the fastest and most ascents. So how do they do it? According to a new study, the answer could literally be in their blood.​

Third Man Records is seven years old on July 30, and is celebrating with an attempt to play the first phonographic record in space. A master of Carl Sagan's A Glorious Dawn will be played using a custom-built turntable designed for operation at high altitude.

The Perlan Mission II glider, which is designed to fly higher than the U-2 spy plane and SR-71 Blackbird, has made its maiden flight after separating from its towplane at an altitude of 5,000 feet above Roberts Field at Redmond Municipal Airport in Oregon.

The airlock of the ISS was turned into a laboratory last week. In a station with as much space as a 747, that may seem a bit odd, but its purpose was part of a study of the lungs of space travelers by monitoring the effects of one the astronauts' most surprising hazards: dust.

Raymond's Solar Flight has detailed its fourth solar-powered aircraft, the Sunstar. Designed primarily for unmanned flight, it's reported to have more performance potential than any other projects currently under development, with greater flight speeds in a turbulence-tolerant design.

Alan Eustace, has broken the 128,100-ft (39,045-m) high-altitude skydive record set by Felix Baumgartner in October, 2012. Jumping from a balloon at 135,890 ft (41,419 m) above Roswell, New Mexico, Eustace also set new world records for vertical speed and freefall distance.

The solar-powered UAV previously known as the Qinetiq Zephyr, which is now part of the Airbus High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) programme and called the Airbus Zephyr, has continued it's record-breaking ways in its first civil flight in the skies over Dubai earlier this month.

Riding on the colossal stratospheric air waves generated over mountains, the Perlan ll team plans to fly their glider to the edge of space and shatter all existing wing-borne sustained flight height records.

A link has been made between the abnormal breathing patterns experienced while sleeping at altitudes higher than 2,500 m (8,200 ft) and the symptoms of altitude sickness, particularly headaches. The finding could lead to potential treatments to combat altitude sickness.